Chapter Six: Attack and Fear

II. The Message of the Crucifixion

4 For teaching purposes, let
us consider the crucifixion again. We have not dwelt on it before
because of its fearful connotations. The only emphasis we laid upon
it was that it was not a form of punishment. Nothing, however,
can be really explained in negative terms only. There is a positive
interpretation of the crucifixion which is wholly devoid of fear and
therefore wholly benign in what it teaches if it is properly
understood. The crucifixion is nothing more than an extreme example.
Its value, like the value of any teaching device, lies solely in the
kind of learning it facilitates. It can be and has been
misunderstood. This is only because the fearful are apt to perceive
fearfully.

5 I have already told you
that you can always call on me to share my decision and thus make
it stronger. I also told you that the crucifixion was the last
foolish journey that the Sonship need take and that it should mean
release from fear to anyone who understands it. While we
emphasized only the resurrection before, the purpose of the
crucifixion and how it actually led to the resurrection was
not clarified at that time. Nevertheless, it has a definite
contribution to make to your own lives, and if you will consider it
without fear, it will help you understand your own role as
teachers.

6 You have reacted for years
as if you were being crucified. This is a marked tendency of
the separated ones, who always refuse to consider what they have done
to themselves. Projection means anger, anger fosters assault,
and assault promotes fear. The real meaning of the crucifixion lies
in the apparent intensity of the assault of some of the Sons
of God upon another. This, of course, is impossible and must be fully
understood as an impossibility. In fact unless it is
fully understood as only that, I cannot serve as a real model for
learning.

7 Assault can ultimately be
made only on the body. There is little doubt that one
body can assault another and can even destroy it. Yet if
destruction itself is impossible, then anything that is
destructible cannot be real. Therefore, its destruction does
not justify anger. To the extent to which you believe that it
does, you must be accepting false premises and teaching
them to others. The message which the crucifixion was intended to
teach was that it is not necessary to perceive any form of
assault in persecution because you cannot be persecuted. If
you respond with anger, you must be equating yourself with the
destructible and are therefore regarding yourself insanely.

8 I have made it perfectly
clear that I am like you and you are like me, but our fundamental
equality can be demonstrated only through joint decision. You
are free to perceive yourselves as persecuted if you choose. You
might remember, however, when you do choose to react that way,
that I was persecuted as the world judges and did not
share this evaluation for myself. And because I did not share it, I
did not strengthen it. I therefore offered a different
interpretation of attack and one which I do want to share with
you. If you will believe it, you will help me to teach
it.

9 We have said before, "As you teach, so shall you learn." If you react as if you are persecuted, you are teaching persecution. This is not a
lesson which the Sons of God should want to teach if they are
to realize their own salvation. Rather, teach your own perfect
immunity, which is the truth in you, and know that it
cannot be assailed. Do not protect it yourselves, or you have
believed that it is assailable. You are not asked to be
crucified, which was part of my own teaching contribution. You are
merely asked to follow my example in the face of much less
extreme temptations to misperceive and not to accept them
falsely as justifications for anger.

10 There can be no
justification for the unjustifiable. Do not believe there is, and do
not teach that there is. Remember always that what you believe
you will teach. Believe with me, and we will become equal as
teachers. Your resurrection is your reawakening. I am the
model for rebirth, but rebirth itself is merely the dawning on your
minds of what is already in them. God placed it there Himself, and so
it is true forever. I believed in it and therefore made it forever
true for me. Help me to teach it to our brothers in the name of the
Kingdom of God, but first believe that it is true for you, or
you will teach amiss.

11 My brothers slept during
the so-called "agony" in the garden, but I could not be
angry with them because I had learned I could not be
abandoned. Peter swore he would never deny me, but he did so three
times. He did offer to defend me with the sword, which I naturally
refused, not being at all in need of bodily protection. I am
sorry when my brothers do not share my decision to hear only one
voice, because it weakens them as teachers and as learners.
Yet I know that they cannot really betray themselves or me and
that it is still on them that I must build my church.

12 There is no choice in this
because only you can be the foundation of God's church. A
church is where an altar is, and the presence of the altar is what
makes it a church. Any church which does not inspire love has
a hidden altar which is not serving the purpose for which God
intended it. I must found His church on you because you who accept me
as a model are literally my disciples. Disciples are followers, but
if the model they follow has chosen to save them pain in all
respects, they are probably unwise not to follow him.

13 I elected both for your
sake and mine to demonstrate that the most outrageous assault
as judged by the ego did not matter. As the world judges these
things, but not as God knows them, I was betrayed,
abandoned, beaten, torn, and finally killed. It was perfectly clear
that this was only because of the projection of others, because I had
not harmed anyone and had healed many. We are still equal as
learners, even though we need not have equal experiences. The Holy
Spirit is glad when you can learn enough from mine to be re-awakened
by them. That was their only purpose, and that is the only way in
which I can be perceived as the Way, the Truth, and the Light.

14 When you hear only one
voice, you are never called on to sacrifice. On the contrary,
by enabling yourselves to hear the Holy Spirit in others, you can
learn from their experiences and gain from them without
experiencing them yourselves. That is because the Holy Spirit is one,
and anyone who listens is inevitably led to demonstrate His way for
all. You are not persecuted, nor was I. You are not asked to
repeat my experiences because the Holy Spirit, Whom we
share, makes this unnecessary. To use my experiences
constructively, however, you must still follow my example in how to
perceive them.

15 My brothers and yours are
constantly engaged in justifying the unjustifiable. My one lesson,
which I must teach as I learned, is that no perception which is out
of accord with the judgment of the Holy Spirit can be
justified. I undertook to show this was true in a very extreme case
merely because it would serve as a good teaching aid to those whose
temptations to give in to anger and assault would not be so
extreme. I will with God that none of His Sons should suffer.

16 Remember that the Holy
Spirit is the communication link between God the Father and His
separated Sons. If you will listen to His Voice, you will know that
you cannot either hurt or be hurt and that many need your
blessing to help them hear this for themselves. When you perceive
only this need in them and do not respond to any other,
you will have learned of me and will be as eager to share your
learning as I am. The crucifixion cannot be shared, because it
is the symbol of projection, but the resurrection is the symbol of
sharing, because the reawakening of every Son of God is
necessary to enable the Sonship to know its wholeness. Only this
is knowledge.

17 The message of the
crucifixion is perfectly clear:

18 Teach only love, for that
is what you are.

19 If you interpret the
crucifixion in any other way, you are using it as a weapon for
assault rather than as the call for peace for which it was intended.
The Apostles often misunderstood it and always for the same reason
that makes anyone misunderstand anything. Their own imperfect love
made them vulnerable to projection, and out of their own fear they
spoke of the "wrath of God" as His retaliatory weapon. Nor
could they speak of the crucifixion entirely without anger, because
their own sense of guilt had made them angry.

20 There are two glaring
examples of upside-down thinking in the New Testament, whose whole
gospel is only the message of love. These are not like the
several slips into impatience which I made. I had learned the
Atonement prayer, which I also came to teach, too well to engage in
upside-down thinking myself. If the Apostles had not felt guilty,
they never could have quoted me as saying, "I come not to bring
peace but a sword." This is clearly the exact opposite of
everything I taught.

21 Nor could they have
described my reactions to Judas as they did if they had really
understood me. They would have realized I could not have said,
"Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" unless I
believed in betrayal. The whole message of the crucifixion was
simply that I did not. The "punishment" which I am
said to have called forth upon Judas was a similar reversal. Judas
was my brother and a Son of God, as much a part of the Sonship as
myself. Was it likely that I would condemn him when I was ready to
demonstrate that condemnation is impossible?

22 I am very grateful to the
Apostles for their teaching and fully aware of the extent of their
devotion to me. Nevertheless, as you read their teachings, remember
that I told them myself that there was much they would understand
later because they were not wholly ready to follow me at the
time. I emphasize this only because I do not want you to allow
any fear to enter into the thought system toward which I am
guiding you. I do not call for martyrs but for
teachers. No one is "punished" for sins, and the
Sons of God are not sinners.

23Any concept of
"punishment" involves the projection of blame and
reinforces the idea that blame is justified. The behavior that
results is a lesson in blame, just as all behavior teaches the
beliefs which motivate it. The crucifixion was a complex of behaviors
arising out of clearly opposed thought systems. As such, it was the
perfect symbol of conflict between the ego and the Son of God. The
conflict is just as real now, and its lessons, too, have equal
reality when they are learned. I do not need gratitude any
more than I needed protection, but you need to develop your weakened
ability to be grateful, or you cannot appreciate God. He does
not need your appreciation, but you do.

24 You cannot love what you
do not appreciate, and fear makes appreciation impossible.
Whenever you are afraid of what you are, you do not appreciate
it and will therefore reject it. As a result, you will teach
rejection. The power of the Sons of God is operating all the time
because they were created as creators. Their influence on each
other is without limit and must be used for their joint
salvation. Each one must learn to teach that all forms of rejection
are utterly meaningless. The separation is the notion of
rejection. As long as you teach this, you still believe it.
This is not as God thinks, and you must think as He thinks if
you are to know Him again.

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